Join fellow booklovers and UW English professor Emily Auerbach for a lively discussion of two powerful books focused on resilience. Classes meet in the South Madison Community Room at 2300 S. Park St. (free and accessible parking) from 10-11:30 AM, with coffee and snacks served starting at 9:30 AM. This program is offered free as a benefit to the UW Odyssey Project (odyssey.wisc.edu), a free jumpstart course in the humanities for adults facing barriers to higher education.
Sept 10 Isabel Allende, The Wind Knows My Name: A Novel
This 2023 novel by acclaimed Chilean-American author Allende intertwines two stories of refugee children fleeing trauma and searching for home and family. In 1938, five-year-old Samuel escapes occupied Vienna on the Kindertransport train; in 2019, seven-year-old Anita escapes danger in El Salvador on a train but winds up alone in a detention camp in Arizona.
Oct 29 Rebekah Taussig, Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body (UW’s Go Big Read selection)
Paralyzed from age three and confined to a wheelchair, Taussig challenges readers to consider disability from a different perspective: “Instead of disability as the limitation, what if a lack of imagination was the actual barrier?” Described as a combination memoir, essay, and call to action, Sitting Pretty (2020) will spark discussions campus wide, including with the author when she visits Madison.
If you plan to attend Tuesday Morning Booktalks this fall, please register (even though free) so we know how much food to order and how many handouts to make.
Questions about Tuesday Morning Booktalks? Contact Professor Emily Auerbach at emily.auerbach@wisc.edu.